cd sketches

In the internet art sphere, limited palettes have been pretty popular for quite a while. Limited color palettes are exactly what they sound like. When painting or drawing, instead of using a large amount  of colors (12-24), a limited palette only relies on a small amount of colors (2-5). Because limited color palettes are so 'limited' (obviously) they rely heavily on improvisation and color mixing. Both limited and non-limited color palettes have their pros and cons, this article aims to explain some of them. If you've never used a limited color palette, you may be wondering to yourself, why would someone want to use less colors when they could use more colors. While painting with less colors may seem like and unnecessary handicap, I promise it does have its benefits.  For one, when you use less colors, you begin to get very comfortable with how those specific colors interact. And, if you chose a yellow, red and a blue, you will learn everything you need to know about how t...

 If you are an artist and you don't keep at least two sketchbooks, you could be doing it wrong. Of course, you can do whatever you want, but, keeping two sketchbooks is undoubtedly better than just one. In this article I hope to give you some pros of two sketchbooks and open your mind to the reasons why many artists have two sketchbooks.  Photo by Ivan Samkov From what I've seen, most artists have, at the very least. two sketchbook. Many of them even have upwards of five sketchbooks going at one time. And I'm not talking about art supply collectors either, I am just talking about normal artists who make art. For the most part, artists keep one messy sketchbook and one more refined cleaner sketchbook. They can both be the same size or they can be different sizes, but the overall idea is to have different sketchbooks for different purposes. The Messy Sketchbook The funny thing about an artists messy sketchbook is that you'll probably never get to see it. So, I can really ...

Photo by Chase Baker on Unsplash  Since 2020, Plein air painting and Urban Sketching seem to have had a boom in popularity. The popularity of Plein air and urban sketching videos on YouTube have caused many people to try it for themselves. And while this is great for the art community and individuals alike, I feel like a lot of us fail to recognize the etiquette and safety concerns that need to be addressed. In this Article I am going to cover some Plein air and Urban sketching etiquette that should be maintained, as well as tips that will keep you safe while making art outside. 1. Mind People's Privacy I know we have all see videos on YouTube of sketching people from life or sketching someone's house from life, but, many people aren't going to like that if they catch on to what you are doing. While you may have wholesome intentions of improving your art skill, not everyone knows that. And in a world where many people are isolated from their neighbors and hold their privac...

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch from Pexels Is digital more or less difficult than traditional art? Though the general consensus has begun to change over time, there is still a pervading thought that digital art is easier than traditional. Though my experience with digital media is very limited, I aim to bring some clarity as well as allow you to question what you may have thought prior to reading this.  Digital does have its shortcuts When people argue that digital is an easier and therefore an inferior art medium, they typically point to these shortcuts. For one, when making art digitally you can undo with just the click of a button. When making art traditionally, depending on the medium, there may not be any way for you to undo a mistake. Next, the ability to easily bring references on screen and trace them gives some traditional artists a lot of grief. I could sit here forever and tell you all of the tools that digital artists have that make their job easier but I'll just name a f...

     From the very beginning of being involved in the online art community, I've noticed that many artists love to toss around the phrase "quick sketch". And now that I have been posting my art online, I have also become all too comfortable calling my work "quick sketches". Whether it be intentional or not, I think that we should be more careful with what we call a "quick sketch"      Before I started posting my art on social media, I just assumed that artists were being completely honest and that what they called a quick sketch was the same as what I would call a quick sketch. I thought that every artist I saw online was just skilled beyond my years. But the more that I involve myself in the art posting ecosystem, I've realized that we're all liars (intentionally or not). I've noticed sometimes that if I am unhappy with a drawing/painting, I will immediately feel more inclined to call it a quick sketch. A subpar sketch can easily become mo...

      As with anything else in life, making art is an up and down ordeal. Very rarely will someone's art consistently get better and better without getting worse at any point. A common misconception though, is that improvement will be linear, but, improvement often looks more like a rollercoaster than an elevator. If you come into making art with the idea that you will see quick, steady improvement, you will only be disappointed. Instead, it's much more productive if you just enjoy making art and see the improvement as a bonus. I am not suggesting that you should be content with never improving, but what I am saying is that if you are unhappy with how your art looks, try enjoying the process, and watch how much more time you spend making art.  The funny thing about making "bad" art is that the more "bad" art you make the more good art you will eventually make. This isn't really an original idea but I feel like everyone needs to hear it. In a way, you sor...

Here it is, the biggest and most controversial question in art; Is it cheating to trace? While there is no clear answer to this question quite yet, in this article, I aim to bring some clarity to this mystery and maybe allow you to question what you believed before reading this. What I mean by "tracing"  In this discussion, I think it's important to make it clear what I mean by tracing. I am not talking about tracing another artists work, I am specifically talking about tracing a reference image so that you can paint overtop of it. These are two very different things.  My experience with tracing has been much like any other artist. Of course when I was very young, around age 10, I traced all the time. I even remember tracing this scene of SpongeBob and Patrick at the beach from a nickelodeon book. At that age, people have no issue with you tracing. You can show it to your parents and they'll even go as far as to complement it. Then around age 15, the only art I was ma...